"All systems are green, universal map has been reached. Location found, space coordinates obtained," Shouted Carmen excitedly. Everything in his screen appeared to be good and found no abnormalities that he already shoved his doubts away.
"Good, prepare to locate the artificial planet," Jack answered.
Everyone on the background, including Li Xuan, kept carrying the energy crystal blocks inside the room.
It was a good thing that the hyperdrive warp room is one of the largest rooms built in the base. Even though there are 47 blocks of energy crystals, the size of a desk, the room has enough space for it all.
Jack began to inspect the star map in the control panel.
There are only two ways to contact the law of equivalent exchange. The first one is to physically send a message to it. The second is for it to seek you.
It sounds obvious, yes, but the way to send a message physically in the vast expanse of the universe is quite tricky. Not to mention that solar systems revolve around their galaxy cover continuously. This is especially the case for the artificial planet. It can move its solar system as a whole along with it like a ship.
Those who have been in contact with the law will be given the path for where it moves towards for the next 31 universal days. For people currently in a place where time moves faster than everywhere else, it would've passed long ago.
Fortunately for the crew, the time anchor is still active.
Immediately, Jack was able to deduct where the path of the law is heading.
"Prepare the message," Jack told Carmen.
"Roger," Carmen answered.
Carmen went out of the room to take scrap metal. This sort of thing was never planned in the beginning. The only pen and paper available in the entire base was already part of the ruins deep in the other areas.
After getting back with a thin plate of metal, Jack stated the message to Carmen.
Making his energy flow through the tip of his finger, Carmen began to carve the metal plate. This is one of the limitations of a stage 3 advanced being where energy can only be manipulated primitively, unlike Jack. The latter can actually make energy barriers that can last for as long as there is a source.
From the Black Mirror Project Site, we, the current crew, are willing to trade with the law 47 blocks of energy crystals with a size of 1.5m x 1m x 0.5m.
The new exchange would not affect the current ongoing exchange with party a and party b. Instead, this shall be wholly new, and its effects shall be placed on top of the first contract.
Jack carefully stated the message to Carmen as Carmen used his own energy to carve on the plate.
Each word needed to be meticulous as no matter how intelligent the current A.I. for the law is, it is, after all, only an A.I. Computer programs follow every single code down to the dot.
And while programming has advanced to the point where it is basically a human writing a letter to the IDE (Integrated Development Environment or Programming Software), the logic still needs to be written strictly like a robot.
"In this new case, these are our, the party b, offer."
"1. In exchange for 7 energy crystal blocks, Jack Hemmons' descendants shall be protected. Annie Himm's descendants shall be protected. Nina Roberts's descendants shall be protected. Li Xuan's descendants shall be protected. Carmen Fernando's descendants shall be protected. Connor Walsh's descendants shall be protected. Miko Reyes' descendants shall be protected. The word protection denotes that the law, party a, shall protect the lives, development, privacy, and assets…
"2. In exchange for 39 energy crystal blocks, we shall bring up contract ID#MCMXCVI7196X in which party c, the various leaders, shall be punished for sabotaging the project Black Mirror by providing untested software…
Attachment: piecesofevidence.jpg, crewmemberid.pdf, energyreadings.xls, currentstateofthebase.dwg… Please see the 21st-century thumb drive embedded on the plate.
"P.S. The warp construct in the base is a type-b one wherein it can only send outwards and not recieve. Still, due to the time difference, please send a disposable probe for us to recieve and confirm. All of us here are stage 3 and above thus we can sign the contract with our energy signature."
On the side, Li Xuan compiled all the files in one folder while Miko brought the 21st-century flash drive, a USB-A thumb drive.
"Look at this, how ancient," Miko quipped.
"Goodluck plugging that in," Li Xuan answered.
"Is it really that bad?" Miko asked.
"I don't know, I mean look at it. How did these ancient people survive using tech that can only work once plugged the right way. Just imagine," Li Xuan added.
When he tried, it took Miko eight turns before he actually plugged the flash drive-in.
"This is bullshit," Miko growled.
Li Xuan, who watched the ordeal, silently laughed.
"Seriously, 21st century people. How did you survive with your shitty tech?" he thought.
When the two clowns thought it was over, they saw the flash drive's transfer speed and had a shadow on their faces.
Transfer Rate: 99 MB/S
Estimated Time of Completion: 4 hours.
"You're kidding," the two shouted in unison.
Jack heard the commotion and asked, "What's wrong?"
Li Xuan and Miko looked at Jack and pointed at the control panel, "Captain, ETC is 4 hours."
Jack's brow scrunched and looked at the panel.
Transfer Rate: 97MB/S
Estimated Time of Completion: 10 minutes.
"It says 10 minutes," Jack spoke.
???
The two looked again.
Transfer Rate: 98MB/S
Estimated Time of Completion: 1 hour.
Li Xuan: …
Miko: …
Jack: …
"Shit," Jack shouted.
"Is there a way to make this faster?" Miko added.
"Hey Connor, do you have the schematics for the flash drive?" Li Xuan shouted.
Near the construct, Annie, Nina, Carmen, and Connor double-checked the words written on the plate. Annie and Nina have the best background when it comes to programming using the language called Optim.
Optim is the exact programming language that the A.I. of the law was built upon. Every contract is like a program that needs to flow logically. Compared to the awfully long but rightfully named Universal Language, which is the standard speaking language used universally and was initially based on English, Optim feels more robotic. However, it is still very human when used.
Connor, who had been called, stared dumbly at Li Xuan. "Flash drive?"
"Yes."
"We don't have access to the base's database now. But I can try and recall it, what's the problem?"
"Is there a way to speed up this thing?"
"If I recall correctly, the hardware uses the primitive transistor tech, bits and stuff."
*zoom*
Transfer Complete.
Jack: ???
Li Xuan: ???
Miko: ???
"Check if its corrupted? I heard that thing happens frequently," Miko said.
Opening the explorer, Li Xuan checked the files and matched the metadata for each one. Suddenly his brows scrunched.
Jack and Miko saw the shift in his reaction and asked, "what happened?"
"All of the files are fine, but each file has a date modified meta and from the earliest file that said 08:12:34. The latest file was at 13:02:59." Li Xuan explained.
"Almost five hours had passed?" Jack immediately calculated and asked.
"It seems so," Li Xuan answered.
"What's the current local time?" Jack questioned.
"Eight, twelve."
Everyone trembled. The entire crew knew that these ancient techs could work in the Ergosphere due to its primitivity. If these things began to show malfunction…
"Connor! Is there a way to check how close we are at the event horizon? Annie begin the preparations for transfer. Everyone else, start stacking the energy crystals, connect it with warp-enabled cables. It's now or never," Jack commanded.
This time, everyone had their energies activated that boosted their performance. In a minute, every energy crystals were stacked and tied.
Earlier, everyone had been leisurely doing things as the base's illusion of stability were affecting them. After the explosion, there really was nothing much that happened except for techs dying.
Still…
Carmen looked back to where he thought he saw something again on the platform, and there he saw the same half-sphere that looks like a CCTV camera. In it are various colors swirling around in its lens.
Wide-eyed, Carmen tried to scream "look out" but blacked out the instant he attempted to make a sound.